June Entry 2 - What are the world's biggest global issues, and what is the UN trying to do for it?

TOK ESSAY

What are the world's biggest global issues, and what is the UN trying to do for it?

This topic I have chosen is about majority of the worlds biggest problems and how the UN (United Nations) is planning on taking action to partly better or even resolve these global issues. In the month and year September 2015 the United Nations launched their 15 year program to try and make the world a better place. The UN setup 17 sustainable development goals. This is a focal point of the UN week in New York City. The UN has also constructed summits around the world to help discuss and come up with solutions with all the UN leaders around the world. 

There are a total of 5 major problems in the world. The first problem addressed is Poverty. The speaker portrays this problem as an “inescapable issue”. Here she means that this problem is very common around the world, especially in developing countries. Even though this problem cannot be physically eradicated completely it can be minimized in the most concentrated areas. In these countries these people are living of just 1.25 dollars and less for just a single day. The main country that houses the most concentrated areas of poverty is India. It houses almost 3/4 of the world’s poverty issues. However out of all the 193 countries in the world, there are only 10 countries that house the most amount of poverty. This is the main cause for all the other problems coming up forth, because one of the main things that developing countries lack is money to be able to supply people with adequate everyday resources.  

 The second global issue is hunger, which is closely tied to poverty. Inadequate nutrition in the body because of hunger sums up more than half of all the child deaths worldwide. Most of these people that suffer from hunger also suffer from poverty. Not having the money to sustain themselves physically and mentally can cause a rapid rise in these global issues. One of the most common areas of hunger is Africa, where one in four people are malnourished, may it be an adult or a child. Because of all this. nearly more than 800 million people don’t have proper access to food and water, to be able to live a healthy lifestyle. 

Closely related to food, is water and sanitation which are described as absolute necessities. Water is labelled as a renewable resource, however nearly all the people who don’t have access to food also do not have access to water and hence cannot maintain proper sanitation. Because of this, a third of the worlds population risks disease transmitted by water mostly, because of lack of sanitation. 

The fourth problem addressed is education. This is a very common issue especially among developing countries. A survey was run and it was deduced that if all students had even basic reading skills, it would reduce world poverty by at least 10 percentage. But illiteracy is an asymmetrical issue and it is shown that it affects considerably more women than men. In the 780 million population of illiterate adults 2/3 are female. 

This point leads us to the next issue which is inequality. As a result women in developing countries have less opportunities to portray themselves as an equal gender. This suppresses the developing countries ability to progress economically, because of the lack of a fully educated workforce. Inequality is not always based on gender, but also based on racial and social lines. Namibia is a country which houses dark people as their major population. There are a few thousand fair people. How ever majority of the lands of Namibia, whether it be agricultural or construction based, is owned by those few thousand fair people. 

Tied to this, land distribution has become a major issue quite recently. Caused by man made phenomenons such as climate change, deforestation, over fishing, etc... the rapid environmental decline might be to late to reverse. Even though the UN is doing everything in their power to supervise and minimize the problems caused to the natural habitat of the world, it continues to become a major issue for international population. 

In conclusion the UN has set up 17 sustainable and global goals that span from micro to macro hoping to contribute to finding solutions for some of the world’s biggest problems. This is not just an effort taken by the UN or the world leaders, because every change in this world starts with you. It should be a team effort to be able to minimize and eventually eradicate all these problems. 

On a positive note it is shown that countries are following these sustainable goals and trying hard to make a difference. If this is improved and kept up the world could become a different and hopefully better place for the future generation. Thank you!